![]() ![]() ![]() Her judgment on that momentous period of social upheaval and dislocation is thus informed essentially by the experiences of three generations of her family. The affective power of the narrative derives from its close relation to the Chinese Revolution and its aftermath-or, rather, from the author’s skilful location of her story within the larger historical context of an emergent modern China. ![]() Jung Chang-or ‘Zhang Rong’ in the standard pinyin used by the author for many of her characters-offers a very moving and compelling family story. And yet at times the author’s attitude jars, in a sense that strongly brought home to me the way in which each of us produces a determinate social meaning out of our own experience. ![]() I confess that I was on occasions moved to tears by the book-either out of feelings of empathy or as a result of unspeakably sad thoughts and emotions. footnote * The author, someone of my own age and background, was born in 1952 to a Communist family, and like myself became a Red Guard and was sent to the countryside for some years to work. The significance and integrity of this first-hand account of the lives of three women in twentieth-century China-the author, her mother and grandmother-so vividly written and ambitious in scope, are beyond question. ![]()
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